Improbable Adventures
by FallingFallacy
Summary: Five entirely ordinary girls are torn from their world by a peculiar storm and thrown into a completely different one filled with strange people and enemies. There they must come to terms with the frightening possibility that their only chance of ever returning home is by defeating the most resilient villain in history. [OCs. No pairings. Rated M mostly for language.]
1. Chapter 1

**AUTHOR'S NOTE / WARNINGS:**

I can't decide which to call this, because it's a mixture. I don't feel like I can sum up the warnings in just a couple of words under a simple title like that, but I don't think all of what I'm about to write here should be considered a warning… a heads-up, perhaps. Or just a bunch of info I feel I should mention. Anyway, let's get started:

This is a story I started writing many years ago, simply for the amusement of my best friends at the time. I got them, for the moment, into Final Fantasy (particularly VII), some more than others (which might be reflected in the importance of certain characters in the story), so I thought I'd amuse them and myself by writing them into a fanfiction!

Therefore, this story contains Original Characters! A bunch of them actually; the whole thing mostly revolves around five of them. So if you can't stand OCs, better not read this! I completely understand. I often tend not to be too ecstatic about the use of OCs myself. But I wrote this story for my friends about characters based on my friends, so it was sort of inevitable here. But there are definitely no pairings! So if that's what you're worried about, be at ease!

Also, I think I should mention that the story runs a lot on personal headcanons, so the whole thing probably includes some of out of character behavior, levels of favoritism, things that don't appear at all in the original universe, and some parts of said universe that function very differently to what the canon intended.

The story was originally started with a rather cracktastic mindset, and I had no intention of even writing a lot of it. But since my friends liked it, it stretched on, and eventually I had to start making up a plot even though I, at the time it all started, had no plans or ideas for how anything was going to work, what would happen, even what the general theme of the story would be! I didn't know yet that I needed to have a plot or an idea. So some of the plot elements and events probably don't really make a lot of sense, and might in all honesty appear a bit soap-like.

But you've got to understand, it never mattered to us. It was all done solely in the name of fun, so at times it felt like the more ridiculous it was, the better. Inconsistencies or nonsensical plot elements never were a problem! If anyone does decide to read further after this ridiculously long author's note / warning, I really hope they'll be able to not mind such things either.

Though in all honesty, even while I do love this story, I can see why it might not appeal to 'outsiders' – meaning anyone who isn't one of the people I wrote it about. But if I may suggest, I think you could try to imagine yourself or your friends in the position of the OCs. I suspect the story might seem more appealing to you that way.

The reason I'm posting this now, years after I've started it and… well, many months after I last wrote anything about it, is simply this: I haven't completed this story, but I do still hope I might. I just need to find the motivation to do it, or the spark that I seem to have lost somewhere along the way. I've more or less drifted apart with most of the friends I wrote this for, and I doubt any of them is interested in reading it anymore, so there's no boost of motivation coming for my aid from that direction. Perhaps I'm hoping that if I'd gain even a couple of readers for the story here, I might find it in myself to finish it. I can't promise anything though. Who knows if anything's enough to motivate me for this anymore!

Another reason for posting this here is that I've spent a lot of time and thought on this story, and had many fun moments with it, and I guess I should honor that by putting it up somewhere people can actually read it! Even if no one wants to, or if anyone who does hates it. It is a fanfic, after all, and fanfiction is written to be shared.

Well then, if I haven't scared you off yet with this lengthy babble, let's just move on to the first chapter and see if that'll do the trick instead. You have been thoroughly warned, don't come whining to me if you see something you don't like!

Thank you! – Fall

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**Chapter 1**.

It was a hot summer day, quite late already yet the sun was only setting – the days were very long in the summer this far up north.

Five girls, best friends, were sitting peacefully in a small boat, quite far from the shore, rocked gently by the waves from the sea flowing in the bay. Two of the girls, a blonde and a glass-wearing brunette, were fishing. Another glass-equipped girl, a brunette also, was lying on her back on one of the little seats, dreamily staring up at the summer sky, chewing on a cookie. A girl with slightly reddish hair was listening to music from her mp3-player, watching two swans swimming in the distance, while the last girl, one with dark brown hair, was at the head of the boat, absently doodling on a small notepad.

"Shouldn't we get going back soon?" Suzy, the cookie-eater, spoke up, getting bored of the peaceful silence. "I wanna watch the movie already!" The fishing brunette, Caroline, narrowed her eyes at the shorter girl in annoyance.

"Not until I've caught a fish! Besides, I recall already telling you I am not watching any horror movies while we're here. I'm supposed to be able to sleep in an old cottage in the middle of the woods, remember?" she objected a bit snappily.

"There's no hurry", said Liz, the one with the mp3-player, pulling off her ear buds and smiling peacefully at her friends' budding bickering. "We have the whole week. There's plenty of time to watch movies and do everything we like, so… there's no hurry", she repeated brightly.

"But I'm bored", Suzy whined, rocking the boat a little. The blonde, Josephine, glared at her.

"Stop that, you're scaring all the fish! Then we won't be leaving until dawn!" she threatened. Suzy stuck her tongue out at her in frustration and turned away.

"Nelle, you still alive back there?" she called out pitifully to the girl drawing at the head of the boat. Nelle turned to look at her, supporting her head on one hand wearily.

"Yeah, I guess", was her reply. "You're not the only one bored, though", she sighed. Tired of drawing, she stuffed her notepad into a basket under her seat before leaning back, yawning lazily.

For a moment, they managed to once again sit in silence. Then Liz spoke. "Hey, is it just me or do those clouds look kind of… not good?" she asked, frowning slightly as she pointed out to the sea. Her friends turned to look. Indeed, there were tall, dark clouds on the horizon.

Nelle followed Liz's example and frowned. "I think we should leave", she said, sounding slightly worried. Due to her lack of anything better to do while on summer vacation, the girl had been studying different types of clouds for weeks now because of an article on a science magazine she was subscribed to. She wasn't really an expert on the topic yet or anything, but she could still tell when the sky didn't promise well.

"Fine, we'll leave soon", Caroline sighed. Nelle shook her head.

"No, I mean we should leave right now", she said.

"But they're still so far away", Josephine complained.

"Yeah, but we're also pretty far from the shore", Suzy pointed out. "And besides, it's not like there's a motor on this boat or anything. It'll take a while to row."

"Yeah, and these clouds could move a lot faster than we'd guess", Liz added. Nelle nodded in agreement.

"There's definitely gonna be a storm soon", she said. "We really should get to shelter."

"Yeah, yeah, we'll go soon", Caroline repeated, rolling her eyes slightly.

"Since when have you been afraid of a thunderstorm anyway?" Josephine asked, somewhat annoyed. It was quite clear she and Caroline did not want their fishing to be cut short at any cost.

"Always at sea, stupid", Nelle replied, starting to get angry. "Don't you know that lightning and water aren't really the safest mix around?"

"Of course I know that", Josephine replied impatiently, resisting the urge to snort. "It's simple physics."

The girls carried on with their subdued debate on whether to leave or to stay for a few more minutes while the wind grew harder and louder, and soon they could feel occasional raindrops falling down on and around them.

"Get those rods in the boat, we're leaving", Liz finally commanded in her strictest voice, leaving no room for objections. Josephine and Caroline both complied, no longer very reluctant to do so as the weather was proving its state to them more effectively now. Suzy grasped the oars and began to row the boat towards the shore. The rain and wind grew harder and harder as they moved, making the task of moving the boat onwards quite a heavy one.

"Shit!" Suzy cursed suddenly, losing her grip on the oar that had grown slipper from the rain. The oar slipped out from her reach and out of the boat, disappearing into the waves with a splash. "Oh fucking hell!" Suzy screeched, flinging herself to the side of the boat and reaching out, trying to reach the oar and pull it back into the boat before it was too late. The boat rocked to the side dangerously.

"Watch out!" Josephine screamed, quickly moving forward to get a hold of Suzy, trying to pull her back into the boat before she too would be thrown into the waves. Just then, the skies cracked open with a roar and a bright lightning struck straight down into the waves, way too close to where they were. A scream of panic escaped from the girls as a shock ran through the water. Thoroughly tased, Suzy and Josephine slipped over the edge of the boat and into the waves. It was almost unnatural.

Caroline, Liz and Nelle watched the events unfold in disbelieving shock, rushing forward to catch their friends too late. The movement did, however, manage to shift the balance enough to flip it onto its side, which caused the three girls to be thrown into the sea as well. They sank under the surface as if pulled by some supernatural force, feeling electricity scratching at them and subsurface currents of some sort pulling them into different directions. For a short moment, Liz managed to catch a hold of Nelle's hand, but they were quickly torn apart. Another lightning hit the water and everything turned black.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Okay, this is where we get properly started! Which is reflected in the length of the chapter I suppose. Have fun, or well, whatever you wish!

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**Chapter 2**.

It was dark. Why was it so dark?

Maybe because her eyes were closed…?

Nelle was lying down, feeling a hard surface under her back. She couldn't open her yes, she couldn't move a muscle. There was pain everywhere, pain beyond anything she had ever experienced before in her entire life. Each part of her body felt as if it had been frozen, yet as if it was on fire.

With a numbed mind, Nelle began to wonder whether she was even alive. Life couldn't possibly contain such feelings as this. No, it was way beyond this world. She began to absently wonder whether or not she was breathing. She couldn't remember what breathing felt like, so she couldn't be sure.

For a long while she lay there, enveloped in utter silence until a sudden, mind-blowing noise broke into her quiet cocoon. It was a rhythmical beating sound, as if someone was beating her skull from the inside with a magic hammer. Nelle grinned inwardly, imagining a goblin with a sparkling purple hammer beating her brains into a puddle of goo and then starting to break her skull until her head collapsed in. She grimaced. Not as funny as she had first thought.

"Look, she's making faces", a bright female voice said somewhere. With the voice breaking through the imaginary veil covering Nelle's ears, the beating ceased quickly, almost as abruptly as it had begun.

"Hopefully she's waking up…" a deep male voice replied.

_Where am I?_ Nelle wondered. She didn't recognize these voices. Gathering all the strength she had, driven by curiosity and partially by the need to protect herself from strangers, even in this state, she finally opened her eyes.

"Yay, she's awake!" the girl spoke again, voice too loud for comfort. Nelle searched out the source of the voice quickly with her eyes, coming to look at a girl with short black hair, lively brown eyes and a wide grin on her face. She seemed to be around the same age as Nelle. There was a tall man beside her, one whose appearance earned a dubious double take from Nelle. The man had long black hair and blood red eyes and was dressed in some kind of a crimson red long piece of cloth that looked very much like a cape. What kind of a freak wears a cape?

Catching up with the situation, realizing that she had no idea what the room surrounding her was, deciding it was definitely not a hospital, and seeing that she was alone with two quite suspicious looking strangers, lying down before them, helpless but still somehow quite alive, Nelle rushed to sit up, only to be pushed back down by the girl who turned out to be quite a bit stronger than she looked.

Great, that did not comfort Nelle at all.

"Take it easy, will you now?" the girl told her. "You've been unconscious for the whole day, so better not start jumping up so quickly yet! What happened to you, anyway? We found you on a shore near Bone Village. Care to share how you ended up there?"

"Yuffie, don't push her, she's tired", the man reprimanded the girl in a mutter. Yuffie just kept grinning, eyes steady on Nelle.

"Sorry, take your time! I'm Yuffie Kisaragi by the way, and this is Vincent Valentine, a friend of mine", she introduced herself and the strange man quickly. Nelle stared at the two of them, starting once more to wonder if she really was still alive… or at least if she was still sane. Wait, maybe this was hell!?

"Well, who are you?" Yuffie asked, cheerful but demanding, cutting Nelle's train of thought. Not that the train had been going to a very good place, though, so the girl didn't really mind. Instead, she blinked a few times, trying to clear her head, and decided to grace them with a graceful answer.

"I'm… uh… Nelle", she croaked, somewhat alarmed with her own voice as it came out so hoarse and weak. She coughed quickly, trying to clear her throat, hoping that would help. "Could you please let me get up, I'm starting to freak out here", she managed to force out as calmly as she possibly could.

"Yeah, sure, of course", Yuffie replied and backed away. Nelle sat up and discovered that she'd been lying on some weird operating table type of thing. Why was she on such a suspicious piece of furniture? Had these people been operating on her? Or _probing_ her like some fucked up aliens?! And why on earth was she there alone? Well, save for the two weirdoes. Where were her friends? Had she been found alone?

Nelle's insides swirled around painfully as she thought of her friends.

"Did you… find anyone else? Over there, near Bone Vil…" she trailed off, cutting her own sentence short as something suddenly clicked in her brain. She blinked slowly a couple of times, shaking her head, trying desperately to clear the haze in her brain. "Wait a minute, where the fuck am I?"

"You're on one of Cid Highwind's greatest airships, the Shera! We use it on our little missions all the time", Yuffie answered cheerfully. "We being… well, a group of awesome heroes! Some call us the Avalanche, though personally I find this name quite outdated and dumb."

Nelle stared. "An airship…? You mean a plane, right?" she asked skeptically. "Or is this like a zeppelin or something?" And what did they mean by missions? Were they some kind of agents or something? Well, this Yuffie person had called them heroes, which probably meant they were some sort of a criminal organization run by idiots. Real heroes never called themselves that, right? And wow, really, Avalanche? What a dumb name indeed!

Yuffie was looking at her weird, then turned to glance at Vincent. "What's a zipperling?" she asked him. Vincent shrugged. Nelle gaped.

"We're… okay, are we even in Europe anymore?" she asked.

"Where's that? I don't know any place called that. Do you, Vince?" Yuffie said, turning once more to look at Vincent. He shook his head. Nelle tried not to hyperventilate.

"So… so this is like what? Is this some other planet? You can't possibly not know what Europe is unless we're… not on Earth!?" she managed to spit out. "So you are aliens after all! Have you been probing me!?"

Yuffie frowned. "Probing you? Why would we do that!?" she asked in genuine confusion, then shook her head. "Never mind that! So you do come from another planet! That's what the other two said too, they can't be all telling the same lie!" she nearly screamed in excitement, turning to Vincent once more. As the words registered in Nelle's head, she rushed to stand up from the table only to have her knees give in and make her fall to the floor. Cursing, she got up with help from both Vincent and Yuffie.

"Those other two, where are they? They're my friends", Nelle said desperately.

"They're with Cloud. There are two others as well but they're still unconscious as far as we know", Yuffie answered, trying to get her to calm down and sit back on the table.

"Cloud?" Nelle repeated skeptically. Why did things seem to have such stupid names here?

"Our leader", Vincent told her.

"Ah, right", Nelle nodded, starting to feel dizzy. A leader, but of course. Of course these weirdoes had a leader. And of course someone leading a mastermind criminal organization called Avalanche would be named something as stupid as Cloud. Wait, of course – it was probably a codename!

Nelle held her head. Everything seemed so ridiculously unbelievable! Well, at least Yuffie and Vincent seemed friendly, so she wasn't really afraid. But she was more confused than she had ever been, she was still in slight pain, and more than anything she was worried to death about the wellbeing of her friends. Even now that she knew they were here on this airship thing with her, she still couldn't shake off her concern until she could actually see that they were alright.

Furthermore, she still didn't know where she was, or how she'd ended up there in the first place. If this really was some other planet, which sounded absolutely ridiculous yet still somehow seemed to be the only 'rational' explanation she could come up with at the moment, how the hell did they get there?

She was still quite busy with the storm of thoughts in her brain when the door opened and three people walked into the room. The first one to enter was a young man with bright blue eyes and blond hair that stood up in weird spikes. He was followed by two girls whom Nelle recognized immediately, even with her head still filled with the smog of dizzy thoughts. A part of the weigh on her heart vanished at the sight of Caroline and Liz in one piece and obviously well enough to move around.

As soon as the two of them spotted Nelle, they rushed past the three strangers. Nelle didn't even have time to properly blink before she had been trapped between her two friends in a rather crushing embrace.

"Thank god, you're alright", Caroline breathed out with immense relief in her voice, pulling away from the hug quickly to inspect her friend more closely. "Wait – are you alright?" she asked, eyes searching frantically for any signs of injury. Liz didn't say a word, keeping her arms around Nelle and trembling slightly as she sat down next to her friend, refusing to let go.

Nelle nodded slightly at Caroline, offering her the most reassuring smile she could muster at the moment. "Yeah, I'm fine", she said. "You?"

"We're fine", Caroline assured her, returning a strained smile. Liz just kept clutching at Nelle.

The blonde man took an uncertain step forward, clearing his throat almost uncomfortably before speaking. "Uh, hello… my name's Cloud", he said in a hesitant manner. Nelle nodded at him, just as hesitant. "I've been talking with Caroline and Liz, and it seems…" He paused, scratching the back of his head wearily. "Well, judging from everything that's happened, you might be here because of us."

"Uh… huh?" Nelle uttered intelligently, not really comprehending what she was being told. She turned to look at Caroline and Liz who both nodded at her inquiring gaze, Liz still clutching onto her arm. Nelle turned back to Cloud with a frown on her face. "So what does that actually… how come?" she asked, not really sure what she was supposed to be asking in order to receive some clarification.

"Well, we sort of", Cloud began, sounding somewhat conflicted, as if he didn't know what he was supposed to say either, "experimented with something and tried to open some portals in our world", he emphasized the word almost desperately. "It was a project a famous scientist worked on a long time ago, and we decided to test it now. We had the machine he built and the instructions and everything. It all seemed like it should have gone fine. But well, it didn't. Something went wrong, maybe there's something we missed, I don't know", he shook his head. "Anyway, when we used the machine, this huge storm just appeared and we had to land the airship and wait for it to pass. And once it had, we found you five washed ashore near Bone Village", Cloud finished, apparently running out of things to say and trusting Nelle to connect the dots in the story without having him spell them out.

As was to be expected, Nelle was speechless. She couldn't think of anything at all to say to that, so she just stared at Cloud with a baffled expression, her mouth slightly agape, a frown slowly forming. Cloud stood still uncomfortably, a regretful look on his face.

"I'm really sorry", he said quietly. "I promise we'll do everything we can to help you get back to where you came from. We never thought something like this might happen."

Nelle turned to look at the floor, hoping that its plainness would help her think more clearly. She was beating her brain for something to say, but hell, she didn't even know what to think! All of what she had just heard was absolutely unbelievable. She had never been exactly a skeptic, no, quite the opposite, but this was just way too ridiculous for even her to believe. But even so, she had no choice but to accept it. How else could they be here, after all?

So then, she clarified to herself, considering everything Cloud had just said was true, the situation was this: she had been torn away from her home planet along with her four best friends and zapped onto some weird place god knows where. And all this just because a group of idiots decided to play around with some abandoned experiment on opening fucking _portals_, of all things! Portals never spelled good news, everyone knew that!

Nelle glanced at Liz who was still almost ominously quiet, and for the first time she realized that the redhead actually looked angry. The trembling wasn't just shock after all, as Nelle had assumed – it was anger. Caroline was still looking a bit passive, but Nelle easily realized that it was just the well-practiced mask the girl always used to hide her rage.

Nelle turned her gaze from her friends back to the floor, realizing that she was feeling quite incredibly pissed off herself. She gritted her teeth together tightly, trying hard not to start freaking out and screaming at the three strangers in the room. Sure, they had probably saved their lives, but apparently they were the ones who had put them in danger in the first place! Clenching her fists in an attempt to contain her growing anger, Nelle stubbornly kept her gaze away from Vincent, Cloud and Yuffie, all of whom now stood uncomfortably still.

"How are Josie and Suzy?" Nelle found herself asking. Even without looking up, she noticed Vincent shift away slightly the moment she voiced the question. She finally looked up to see Yuffie wringing her hands uneasily and Cloud scratching the back of his neck, staring at the floor. Nelle held her breath. These weren't good signs.

Angry and afraid, Nelle stood up rigidly, hands in fists at her sides. "Where are they? I want to see them", she demanded, taking an impatient step forward.

"Yeah", Liz finally spoke, standing up as well. "I think it's about time we get to see them already." Cloud looked at them anxiously. Caroline crossed her arms, glaring at Cloud expectantly.

"Well, they're still unconscious and not too well", Yuffie put in slowly. "We're not entirely sure when they're gonna wake up. They got a bit shocked, by lightning we think, and…"

"You think we don't know that?!" Caroline snapped, cutting her off, starting to lose her cool now. "We were there and we saw how it happened!" she nearly screeched at Yuffie who looked quite alarmed at the brunette's sudden reaction.

Vincent sighed heavily, approaching the three angry girls with an extremely gloomy expression on his face. "Cloud… I think it would be best if we just took them to see their friends. It shouldn't hurt them any more than they've already been hurt", he said in a low, monotonous voice. Cloud nodded slowly.

"Alright, follow me", he sighed before walking out of the room. Liz, Caroline and Nelle followed him swiftly, Vincent and Yuffie tailing them. Cloud led them through the hallways of the airship to a room at the end of one corridor. He pushed the door open and held it for Liz, Caroline and Nelle as they entered. And as they did, they were greeted by a devastating sight.

They had entered a small infirmary of sorts, at the center of which sat two currently occupied beds. In one of them lay Josephine, pale and unmoving under the covers. Suzy was in the other bed, looking just as pale and lifeless as Josephine, in addition sporting some cuts on her cheeks and forehead. The sight of them was miserable. If it weren't for the heart monitors beside the beds demonstrating the heartbeats of the two girls, it would have been easy to mistake them for corpses.

There was little more Liz, Caroline and Nelle could do upon entering the room other than stare at their friends in shock. Yuffie and Cloud shuffled into the room after them, wearing worried expressions.

"We're really sorry about this", Cloud stated weakly. "We're gonna do everything we can to help them."

Nelle felt tears burn her eyes but she refused to let them fall. There was no reason to cry, she assured herself, absolutely none. Everything was going to be fine, after all. Suzy and Josephine would wake up soon, and after a bit of rest they'd be as good as new! Then they would all go back home and live happily ever after.

With these 'happy' thoughts filling her head, the urge to cry grew even stronger. She couldn't even fool herself. Things never worked out like that, nothing ever went so smoothly. They were in a real mess, a horrible, devastatingly confusing one.

A rattling sound from the back of the room shook Nelle out of her thoughts. The noise was quickly followed by the sound of glass shattering against a floor, a sigh and a couple of small curses. Soon after, a woman with brown hair and eyes walked out of a smaller room at the back of the infirmary. She looked at the other people in the room in slight confusion at first, then sighed and shook her head.

"Oh, it's you", she said softly. "I didn't know you had…" She sighed again, arranged a smile on her face and then walked closer to the three girls. "I'm Tifa Lockhart, it's very nice to meet you", she smiled at them pleasantly.

For some reason, this upset Nelle. How could this person smile like this when her friends were lying half dead not two meters from them? How dare she greet them in such a lighthearted manner in this situation? Deep inside, Nelle knew she was being irrational, but at that moment she didn't give a crap.

Caroline and Liz greeted Tifa with similarly upset eyes, perhaps thinking something similar to what Nelle was feeling. Tifa's smile fell slightly. She hummed in disappointment under her breath before walking past them to get the dust pan sitting by the door.

"Oh well, I guess I shouldn't have expected you to be too friendly, after all…" she muttered, glancing slightly at the three girls. "I know, it might be our fault that you're here. But still, we did save you, right?" she added before making her way back through the door she had come from, probably to clean up whatever it was that had shattered.

A blazing, devastating surge of indignation flared in Nelle's gut. She clenched her fists and trembled in rage, wanting to scream at Tifa and tell her to get off her high horse. How could she say these things, sounding almost as if she was expecting gratitude? None of this madness would have even happened if these stupid people hadn't been playing around with things they obviously couldn't control. This was their fault! They should fucking face the consequences of their actions, so if Nelle was angry with them, they should just deal with it rather than fuel her anger further!

Cloud cleared his throat, sensing the hostility rising in the room. "Please, don't take her words wrong", he pleaded quietly. "Just… forget what she said." Nelle glanced at him grudgingly before looking down, trying to take deep breaths to calm herself. What was the point of getting angry, after all, she thought as sadness began to flood back in and take over once more. It wouldn't make a difference even if she got to punch Tifa. Things like that wouldn't make anything better.

Slowly, Liz, Caroline and Nelle seated themselves by Suzy and Josephine's beds, watching their sleeping friends' faces like hawks, waiting for any signs of waking up. They sat there for hours, refusing to move when anyone suggested it. Yuffie brought them water, and later some tea and sandwiches, most of which were left untouched. None of them was feeling particularly hungry.

The hours they spent waiting forced them to think about their situation thoroughly. Slowly, after wallowing in their thoughts for long enough, they began to accept their situation – what else was there to do, after all. As a result, they began to find it easier to forgive and appreciate their cursers and saviors. The people surrounding them now were obviously doing all they could to make things up to them. They were earnestly seeking forgiveness and offering all help they could. Holding grudges would be stupid and just complicate things unnecessarily.

But even with the acceptance, no relief came for the sadness and worry they felt as their friends still refused to wake. Nothing meant anything then, nothing but seeing their friends open their eyes. Not even getting back home.

As the hours kept passing, the girls grew tired of just sitting by in silence. After a while, Nelle found herself slowly pacing back and forth before the window, sipping a mug of tea Yuffie had made her. Liz was still sitting by the beds, but she was now eating a sandwich and had been joined by Yuffie who was chatting to her quietly about something or the other. Caroline, on the other hand, had also stood up from her chair and was now standing by the doorway with Cloud, talking quietly about the situation and the experiment, asking him numerous questions about everything that was going on.

It was Vincent who brought their attention back to the two unconscious girls, moving closer to Suzy's bed with a curious expression. "I think she's waking up", he announced, eyes steady on the girl's face.

Everyone rushed forward, crowding around Suzy's bed to witness her eyelashes fluttering, brows furrowing and lips coming apart to let out a slight groan. Her friends held their breaths in anticipation, and after a few moments of agonizing waiting, Suzy's eyes finally opened. She looked at the people gathered around her bed in tired confusion, eyes lingering on Cloud, Yuffie and Vincent for a moment before returning to her friends.

"Where am I?" she asked them hoarsely. "Is this a hospital? What happened, I feel like shit", the girl went on, groaning. She glanced at the three strangers and Tifa who had also appeared beside her bed. "Who are these guys?" she grunted, turning her eyes to her friends once more.

Immensely relieved and elated that Suzy was finally awake, her friends were quick and eager to explain to her everything they knew. Soon, Suzy's mind was filled with the same questions and confusing emotions as theirs had been, including sorrow, disbelief, pain and anger.

Suzy was quiet for a while after everyone was done explaining the situation to her and introducing themselves. "Where's Josephine?" she finally asked. Caroline stepped out of the way and pointed to the bed next to Suzy's.

"She hasn't woken up yet", she explained. Suzy stared for a while, her eyes slowly filling up with tears, forcing her to hide her face into her blanket for a moment.

"She's alright though, isn't she?" the girl asked fearfully, looking up at her friends. Liz nodded.

"Yeah, she's fine. She just needs to wake up, which should be happening soon since you're up now", she assured the shorter girl, her calm voice comforting Suzy a little.

"I'll go get you something to eat, you must be starving!" Yuffie volunteered, apparently having taken it as her duty to keep the girls fed for now.

"I'll come with you, you'll just wreck the whole kitchen by yourself", Tifa sighed and followed Yuffie out of the room. Cloud walked a bit further from the beds, taking out his cell. The girls kept on feeding Suzy all sorts of bits of information while Cloud talked on the phone. A brief while later, he ended the call and pocketed his phone, returned to Suzy's bedside.

"I called a friend, Reeve Tuesti", he told them. "He's pretty much a doctor among other things, so he's going to check up on you", he went on, directing his words at Suzy. "I really am sorry about all this."

Suzy nodded and opened her mouth to say something, but before she could speak, she was interrupted by the sound of coughing from the next bed. Everyone turned swiftly to look at Josephine, who was coughing and frowning slightly, beginning to open her eyes. Finally, the girl's coughing ceased and she calmed down, blinking her eyes open slowly and wincing at the bright light above her. She looked at the people around her blearily.

"Where…" she began, blinking slowly. "Am I in the hospital?"

"Here we go again", Nelle groaned despite her relief. She was getting a headache from having to go through everything so many times. Caroline and Liz showed more patience, explaining the situation to Josephine with some help from Cloud. In her bed, Suzy listened attentively as well in case she had missed anything earlier. Yuffie and Tifa returned soon with a tray of food, and after some time, a man in a long blue coat entered the infirmary. He had short brown hair, a small, tidy beard and brown eyes. '

Cloud stood up to welcome him. "This is Reeve", Cloud introduced the man to the girls, and then the girls to him. Reeve nodded at them in greeting.

"I'm glad to see you're awake", he told Suzy and Josephine, opening a suitcase he had brought with him. "Well, I'm not really a doctor, but I do know quite an extensive bit about medicine, so I hope you can trust my skill", he told the girls, receiving some shrugs and nods in return. Reeve did a quick, basic inspection on Suzy and Josephine, checking their pulse, lungs, eyes and reflexes carefully and carried out some other minor checks and tests on them while Josephine kept on asking more and more questions about the situation to try and better catch up.

"Okay, let's go through this once more, alright?" Josephine suggested once Reeve had finished his work and was repacking his suitcase. "So to put things short, you tried to open a portal inside your world with some machine some scientist had built years ago, right?" she revised. Cloud nodded. "Then something went wrong and a storm rose, after which you found us here, in your world." Cloud nodded again. "That's just... unbelievable", Josephine muttered, awed and confused and irritated all at the same time.

"Why can't you just use this portal machine again to send us back?" Liz asked. Cloud stiffened in discomfort.

"Well, you see, that's the problem. The machine refuses to work at all anymore, and we don't know what's wrong with it or how it could be fixed", he confessed. "Besides, as you said, we tried to open up the portal inside _our_ world. Therefore I have no idea why or how you ended up here, so even if the machine did work and we could open up a new portal, it might take you pretty much anywhere. It's not safe", he went on. Seeing the shocked and desperate looks on the girls' faces, he quickly cleared his throat and went on. "But I promise we'll find a way to fix all of this. I promise."

"You'd better!" Suzy growled.

"We've already made some plans", Reeve spoke up. "You're all well enough to get back on your feet tomorrow. We'll be taking you to Edge, to Tifa's bar, the 7th Heaven. We'll prepare rooms for you there, and we'll do our best to make sure your stay here is as comfortable as possible for as long as you need to stay here."

Cloud nodded. "Reeve's going to be flying to Cosmo Canyon to meet Nanaki, a friend of ours. His grandfather was a very resourceful scholar and scientist, and happens to be the very person who built the portal machine, so they're going to go through his notes and journals to see if there's anything in them about the machine that we missed before."

"Yes, and we'll contact you as soon as we find something", Reeve added. "Everyone else should stay in Edge for the time being, seeing as things aren't very stable in our world at the moment", he went on, then smiled at the girls briefly. "I must hurry now so we can get this process underway as soon as possible. I hope you all feel better. Good bye", he told them and left the room.

"I should go too…" Vincent muttered, stood up and followed Reeve through the door.

"Well, it's getting pretty late. You should probably get some sleep", Cloud told the girls. "You will be staying here, of course", he told Suzy and Josephine before turning to the other three, "and I'll show you three to a room you can stay in for the night."

After wishing their friends sweet dreams, Caroline, Nelle and Liz followed Cloud out of the room with Yuffie right on their heels. Cloud led them across the corridor to a small room with conveniently three beds inside.

"Make yourselves comfortable", he told them as he let them in the room.

"We'll come wake you up tomorrow once we reach Edge", Yuffie said with a smile.

"Okay", Caroline nodded, taking a seat on one of the beds.

"I'm uh… sorry about being so rude before", Nelle muttered awkwardly, glancing at Cloud and Yuffie by the door. "We know you mean no harm, it's just… a bit difficult right now, I guess?" Liz nodded in agreement beside her.

"It's alright. You have every right to be angry", Cloud said, offering them a small smile, such a small one it almost wasn't there, but well… it was still a smile.

"Well, good night then!" Yuffie chirped at the girls before leaving the room with Cloud, closing the door behind them. Liz and Nelle sauntered over to the two empty beds without a word. They took off their shoes and reduced their clothing in silence before crawling under the covers and turning off the lights.

"This is… this is…" Caroline tried to put her feelings into words as they lay there in the dark. "This is so surreal."

"I know", Nelle muttered. "I'm not even so sure this is really happening."

"It must be", Liz sighed. "We're all here. All of us, experiencing the same things. So it must be real."

"I just don't understand how something like this can happen!" Caroline groaned loudly.

"I know. I guess we just have to get used to it, no matter how hard and unbelievable all of it is", Liz said calmly. "Let's stop worrying. It's all gonna be just fine. We just need to take one step at a time without any rush and accept the situation. We'll work with what we got and end up somewhere. That's all we can do, and in the end, I'm sure it'll lead us to some answers."

The other two mulled over her words for a moment. "Yeah… I guess you're right", Nelle muttered.

"I suppose", Caroline agreed. "Let's just get some sleep for now."

It was silent for a long while until Liz spoke.

"I need new clothes. There's a hole on my shirt", she sighed.

Weak chuckles echoed through the dark room before silence took over once more, and one by one the girls fell asleep with more or less restless thoughts.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** And another chapter. I don't know with what kind of a schedule I'm updating this... I guess, whenever I feel like it? I realized I feel a bit weird going through these early chapters. I remember the later ones much better, so it's them that I think of when I think of this story usually, and let me just tell you, they are sort of... darker, I suppose? These first few ones are so chipper and pointless and kind of humorous, I had almost forgotten.

Oh well, anyway. Read ahead if you can! Reviews would also be much appreciated.

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**Chapter 3.**

"Wake up! We're here!" a voice broke through Josephine's dream and rudely shook her awake. Slightly annoyed by the loud wake up call, the girl squinted her eyes open to see Tifa standing next to her bed, beaming at her. "Come on, get up!" she urged the blonde.

Josephine's body was still aching all over, but she tried not to think on it too much as she stood up from the bed and straightened her clothes before putting on her shoes. Suzy was already sitting on the edge of her bed, ready to go but yawning tiredly.

"I'm going to take you shopping today with Yuffie", Tifa told them happily. "We need to get you new clothes. I guess it's not much, but at least it's something nice we can do for you."

"Thanks", Suzy replied through another yawn.

"Well then, let's get you off this ship. We can have some breakfast at the bar once we're there", Tifa went on energetically. "Come on, I'll take you to the bridge first." She motioned for the girls to follow her as she exited the room.

Josephine and Suzy stood up and did as asked, following Tifa through the narrow corridors of the airship, all the way to a large command bridge. It seemed the majority of the ship's crew was there. The captain, apparently, a man with short blond hair, blue eyes, and a cigarette between his lips abandoned the wheel once he spotted them and walked over.

"This is Cid Highwind, the owner, pilot and captain of this airship!" announced Yuffie who had appeared seemingly out of nowhere with Liz, Caroline and Nelle.

"Sorry 'bout this whole mess", Cid said, greeting the girls with a nod. "As an apology, I'll be in your service any time you need a ride. This ship can take you anywhere in the world!"

"Thank you", Caroline said, smiling politely and trying to keep her awed expression under control as her eyes roamed the bridge.

"Yeah, wow… that's nice", Suzy nodded absently, looking around with wide, curious eyes.

"Well then, we'll be getting off now", Cloud informed Cid as he walked up to them. The pilot returned behind the wheel and in a moment the ship was landing.

After about half an hour drive through the city from where the ship had landed, Liz, Caroline, Nelle, Suzy and Josephine found themselves standing in a bar empty of customers, accompanied by Cloud, Yuffie, Vincent and Tifa.

"Welcome to 7th Heaven! This is where you'll be staying for now", Tifa told the girls happily. "I'll go make some breakfast. Just make yourselves comfortable!" she added before disappearing into the kitchen. Cloud turned to look at the girls.

"Let's go sit down", he said, and it sounded like something was wrong. The way he was looking at the girls as if they might drop dead at any given moment managed to freak them all out slightly. Still, they followed Cloud to one of the tables and took seats around it, joined by Yuffie and Vincent.

Once everyone was sitting down, Cloud cleared his throat. "Alright, let's make one thing clear", he began. "I don't know what kind of a world you live in, but this one isn't safe." The girls exchanged glances. "Especially Edge is a dangerous place right now. Things have been quite unstable for a while, and not only are there ordinary gangs and criminals around… well, there are worse things, too." He paused to frown thoughtfully, thinking how to best voice what he wanted to say. "You see, it might sound weird, but it seems that our world has to almost regularly face a sort of… apocalyptic crisis of some kind", he explained a bit awkwardly. "And now just happens to be one of those times."

"Yeah, don't think we did that experiment with the portals for fun or anything! We actually had a good reason for that", Yuffie put in. "We were about to get into a fight with a really dangerous enemy, but we knew we were outnumbered. But we had this plan to summon more of our friends to our aid through a portal, to get them over to the northern continent from Fort Condor in a flash, you know. We had it all planned out well in advance, but then something went wrong. The portals didn't bring us the friends we'd asked for. Instead that stupid storm rose and the enemy managed to escape, and now we have no idea where he is", she explained, looking unusually worried. "But he sure as hell knows where we are, he always does, so there's actually a very real threat at all times of getting attacked."

"Okay, who the fuck is this enemy person?" Nelle asked.

"He's a former soldier called Sephiroth, and the most dangerous man in the world", Cloud answered darkly. "He's incredibly powerful, but what makes him even more dangerous is his ability to play games with people and make up some weird, twisted plans to ruin everything. He also tends to hide away for a lot of time, making his clones and other goons do all the dirty work that doesn't require his personal attention. This makes finding him and stopping him even harder", he went on. "But we have done it, seemingly defeated him several times already. But he always manages to come back somehow."

"Yeah, he's a real pest!" Yuffie nodded vigorously. "He also likes to try and get rid of us rather often, most of the time by sending some of his stupid clones or something else dangerous after us. Sometimes he also pays a personal visit, usually when he's close to achieving his ultimate goal… which of course isn't something one should ever wish to happen", she groaned.

Cloud nodded. "What we're saying is, this world isn't safe. Almost nothing here is safe. So if you're used to walking around towns without a worry in your own world, forget all that while you're here", he told the girls, eyeing them rather strictly. "Anything can happen here. You need to be ready to defend yourselves at all times", he went on. "Well, we'll do our best to look after you, of course… but still, you have to be able to look after yourself as well in case something happens to us."

At this point, he paused and turned to look at Vincent. "Do you have the guns, Vincent?"

The dark haired man nodded and pulled out a bag from under the table, opening it. He pulled out five handguns and rested them on the table before them. "These are the best I could find. They should be enough", Vincent said.

"Alright", Cloud nodded, then looked at the earthlings. "You'll each be taking one", he nodded towards the guns. "And of course, since we want to ensure your safety, we must teach you to shoot and fight so these will actually be of some use…" he paused, frowning at the girls. "Unless of course you already know how to shoot and use guns…?"

"How could we know how to shoot? I've never even touched a real gun in my entire life!" Caroline said, a bit taken aback by the sight of the firearms before her. "Shooting stuff isn't really something everyone goes around doing back where we're form, thank god…"

"I've shot stuff with air guns, but that's not the same thing though, is it?" Nelle mused, staring at the guns almost suspiciously. "And all I've ever shot with them are cardboard boxes…"

"I guess that's better than nothing, though", Yuffie tried to encourage her.

"Well, as I said, we'll teach you, so don't worry about having no experience. These skills might come in handy while you're here, so we'll make sure you have them", Cloud said. "Of course, there are other forms of defense we could teach you, but I think learning to use a weapon like a sword or a shuriken would be too complicated and take too much time, so this is the best option for you right now."

"Oh, but how about martial arts", Yuffie perked up. "Do you know any?" she asked the girls.

All five shook their heads quickly.

"I guess we could teach you some basics", Cloud nodded thoughtfully.

"Vincent and Rufus, another _friend_ of ours who is also kind of at fault with this portal thing, have promised to help out with your shooting lessons. They'll be coming over tomorrow", Yuffie informed the girls. "And I guess I can help Tifa out with teaching you self-defense and martial arts!"

Tifa chose that moment to waltz into the room and begin to serve everyone scrambled eggs for breakfast. The guns were still lying abandoned on the table. The girls were hesitant to touch them.

"Go on, take one!" Yuffie urged them. "There are no bullets or anything yet, so don't worry."

Suzy and Nelle reached for the guns first, both grasping one to examine more closely. Liz followed their example and took one of the remaining guns, resting it before her on the table without giving it a second look though. Slowly, Josephine and Caroline reached out as well and gingerly pulled their guns closer, holding them warily and giving them a suspicious once-over before putting them down.

Once everyone had been served, Tifa took a seat by the table with them and they all started to eat.

"So then, after we're done eating, we'll be going for a shopping spree!" she reminded the girls brightly, sounding rather excited. "Rufus promised to pay for everything as an apology for dragging you into this mess, so this should really be fun! We can just waste away the day and all his money", she giggled.

The earthlings exchanged wide eyed glances. "So this Rufus person is rich or something…?" Suzy inquired slowly.

"Oh, yeah, he's the president of the Shinra company", Tifa smiled. "It's… well, maybe we can get into more detail about that later. But yeah, it's a big company, and although most of their money's been put into rebuilding and such during the past few years, well, Rufus is still pretty rich!"

The girls nodded. "Well, that does sound like fun", Liz smiled. "Unrestricted shopping for an entire day", she grinned at Caroline who grinned back, the two of them looking particularly excited. Suzy and Josephine seemed quite happy about the news as well. Nelle, on the other hand, let out a loud groan and dropped her head on the table.

"Is something wrong?" Tifa asked her, almost alarmed. Nelle answered with another frustrated groan.

"I guess everybody doesn't like shopping, Teefs", Yuffie said mirthfully through a huge mouthful of food.

"Oh, well…" Tifa uttered, looking slightly bewildered. "Well, we have to overlook that right now. You all need clothes. Daily clothes, outerwear, nightwear, underwear… oh yes. It's gonna be fun!" she grinned again, deciding to forget about Nelle's grumbling. "Perhaps I'll see if I can find something for myself as well…"

Cloud gave her a tired look. "Just don't overdo it", he muttered. "Even though Rufus's involvement widens our budget at the moment, it doesn't mean you should go and spend everything on clothes. And come on, why do _you_ need new clothes anyways? You have two closets full and still you almost never wear anything other than what you're wearing now…" he sighed. "I mean… yeah, spend on these five freely, we owe it to them. But you really should hold back with your personal purchases, okay?"

Tifa pouted. "Oh fine", she said with exaggerated disappointment and stood up with her plate, gathering the rest of the emptied dishes as well and returned to the kitchen. It didn't take long for her to come back with a purse in hand, bursting with enthusiasm once more.

"Alright, shall we get going then?" she grinned at the other girls.

Yuffie jumped up from her seat. "I'll go get the van!" she announced loudly and stole the car keys from Cloud before he could do or say anything to object. The five newcomers stood up as well and followed Tifa outside. Cloud came after them and marched over to the van to drag Yuffie off the driver's seat.

"You are not driving", he told the ninja steadily.

"Why not? I'm an excellent driver!" Yuffie objected loudly, struggling to free herself from Cloud and get back behind the wheel.

Cloud gave her an unimpressed look. "Remember what happened the last time I let you drive?"

Yuffie huffed and rolled her eyes dramatically. "Okay yes, I got sick and drove into a tree", she admitted in a bored voice, glaring at Cloud. "But come on, there are no trees around here!"

Cloud stared at her incredulously. "Yeah, but there are buildings."

Yuffie threw her hands up in defeat. "Gawd, fine! You're such a party pooper Cloud! You go ahead and drive then since you're so perfect", she muttered grudgingly. "But I'm riding shotgun!" she screamed at the other girls who had been watching the exchange in slight amusement, rushing around the car to take the front seat before somebody managed to steal it.

Accepting their fate of riding in the back, Liz, Josephine and Tifa packed themselves into the second row of seats, leaving the last one for Caroline, Nelle and Suzy. Cloud waited until everyone was inside before hopping into the van himself and starting the engine.

The drive from the bar to their destination, a huge building unimaginatively labeled 'Edge Mall', took about ten minutes. Cloud pulled off in front of the entrance and turned to look at the seven females packed in the car with him.

"Call me when you're done. I'm gonna go take care of a couple of things while you're busy", he told them as they began to get out the car.

"Yeah whatever, be seeing you Cloudy!" Yuffie chirped at him before slamming the door and waving widely as he drove off.

"Well then, where should we start?" Tifa asked happily as they entered the mall. "How about we go get you some clothes you can change into right away and then look for the rest?" she suggested after spotting the hole in Liz's shirt.

Everyone agreed and began to look for a suitable clothing store. Yuffie bounced in front of the windows of different materia stores for a while but didn't stay too far behind from the rest of the group and followed obediently once they finally chose and entered a store.

After some time of searching, the girls had all found suitable new clothes for themselves. Josephine had bought a simple blue tank top and black, baggy capri pants with a pair of black sports sandals. Nelle ended up with a pair of washed-out dark gray jeans and a long shaped black t-shirt, as well as a pair of surprisingly comfortable combat boots. Suzy was much pickier with her shirt, finally accepting a light gray one Yuffie discovered that had pink and white scribbles all over the front. After buying the shirt, she became less choosy with the rest of her clothes, picking out a pair of simple light blue slim jeans and white converse shoes.

Liz wanted desperately to stand out from the melancholically monochrome crowd she had witnessed outside in the city. She went through piles of colorful shirts before finally choosing a beautiful mint green one. Still, when it came to choosing pants and shoes, she went with a comfy pair of black shorts and nice black moccasins. Caroline took her time choosing as well, ending up with a burgundy t-shirt and a pair of rather simple gray jeans. For shoes, she chose a pair of black and white ballerinas.

They changed into their new outfits quickly before continuing their search for clothes, wandering through the mall and buying almost anything they saw that pleased them. It turned out shopping without restrictions was rather comforting after all! After nearly six hours of shopping (which included Suzy nearly having a meltdown at Tifa's constant agonizing chatter over whether or not she should buy things for herself or not, Yuffie and Nelle running off from the rest of the group to gawk at materia in the materia stores, and Liz and Josephine running around the stores as if this was their last chance ever to properly shop while Caroline attempted to somehow maintain a calm and composed demeanor despite being just as excited about all the money they could spend, not to mention about seeing so many new things that she had never seen back home) and some quick breaks for eating, the girls decided they were done. Yuffie took out her cell and called Cloud over to pick them up.

While Tifa had successfully refrained from buying too many things for herself, Yuffie had at some point lost control and bought some very expensive materia.

"Well, at least materia is useful", she kept telling everyone over and over again, "so Cloud really shouldn't have any reason to bitch about it!"

Cloud picked them up in the same place he had dropped them off, and the lot of them drove straight back to 7th Heaven. Once they arrived, Cloud eyed the numerous bags the girls began to unload from the car with slight concern.

"Don't worry Cloudy! They're almost completely stuff for the aliens!" Yuffie assured him after seeing his expression.

"Did you buy anything?" Cloud asked the ninja.

"Um, well… just some materia", Yuffie replied, slightly hesitant. Cloud narrowed his eyes at her.

"How expensive?" he asked.

"Oh, it was just some thousands of gil…" Yuffie muttered. "Like about fifty."

Cloud looked a bit furious. "It better be damn good materia then", he growled.

"It is! It totally is!" Yuffie promised fervently. "And totally useful! Like an Ultima to replace the one you lost!" she grinned triumphantly, deciding to try to divert the attention to Cloud's failings instead of her own.

Cloud still looked angry but decided to let the matter go. "Well make sure you don't lose this one, then", he grumbled at Yuffie before striding past her and into the bar. The rest of them did the same and Tifa announced she would make some dinner.

"I saw Rufus. He promised he'd come over early tomorrow", Cloud told the earthlings as they were carrying their things into their rooms which Tifa had showed them earlier. "You better rest well tonight. It's best we start training as soon after he's arrived as possible. And it's gonna be tough, so you'll need your energy."

After dinner, the girls spent a few hours trying to bond with Cloud, Yuffie, Tifa and Vincent who had returned some time earlier from lord knows where. Finally, as darkness had fallen over the city, everyone decided that it was time to retreat into their own rooms to rest after the taxing day. They all knew well that the next one would be even more tiring.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** First of all, thanks for the reviews! Indeed, I haven't gotten many at all, but I appreciate all the feedback I get a lot, so thank you! And to answer CriticEngourager's question: I've written 37 (and a half) chapters of this story, so around 300 pages. But after those chapters, I still need to keep writing if I'm going to finish this (as I hope I will), so if you have any suggestions on how to improve my writing, it wouldn't be in vain at all! I'd really appreciate any and all advice anyone feels like giving me.

And to answer the other question, yes, I do go through and edit the chapters before posting them. These early ones especially undergo a rather heavy editing process (which could probably still be heavier) because they were written years ago and I just... couldn't stand to post them as they are. And I agree with CriticEngourager on that I should probably be briefer with these first few chapters and start being more detailed later when more important and exciting things are happening. So I'm gonna try to edit out some of the things that are completely meaningless to try to make this an easier read. Thanks for the feedback!

Anyway, here's the fourth chapter. I guess we're finally starting to crack the window to at least some action... maybe? Oh and please, if you are reading this story, please leave a review. It would definitely make me happy and urge me to go on with this, so even if you don't have much to say, I'd appreciate hearing from you anyway! Thanks**.**

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**Chapter 4.**

Rays of light pried their way in through the curtains, falling upon Suzy's sleeping face. The increase in the amount of light in the room forced the girl awake, causing her to stir a little before she opened her eyes in an almost cautious manner. Suzy blinked a couple of times before sitting up and putting on her glasses.

It felt a little bad, she realized, waking up alone in this strange room in such a strange place. Even if she was glad to have some privacy, the presence of her friends would have still brought her comfort. She wasn't sure which was more important.

Suzy was still very tired and would have gladly crawled back under the covers and slept for a few more hours, but she knew it was time to get up and prepare to start training. She didn't want to cause these people any inconvenience by oversleeping. They were clearly all doing their best to help. The least she could do in return was try to make their job a bit easier by complying with their requests and instructions. Even if these people were the ones who caused her and her friends to be stolen from their world into this unfamiliar one, Suzy could hardly feel anything but gratitude towards them at this point. After all, she had realized, not everyone who made such mistakes would necessarily try to take responsibility and fix them. When she thought about it, they were actually lucky.

Yawning loudly, Suzy forced herself out of bed and into her new clothes. Once dressed, she left the room and made her way downstairs, remembering at the last minute to bring her gun with her.

The kitchen and the bar area were empty as she got there, but there were voices coming from the lounge room, so she followed them and entered the cozy area crowded by arm chairs, couches and cushions. This was obviously a place where people liked to gather to talk and relax together.

Suzy was a little surprised to see that everyone else was already there. She quickly spotted some people she hadn't seen before as well. Pausing by the door, the girl let her eyes round the room to see what everyone was up to.

She spotted Liz and Josephine talking with the two kids, Marlene and Denzel she thought they were called, who lived with Tifa and Cloud but were sometimes taken for lengthy trips to other towns by that loud Barrett guy who had a freaking gun where his arm should have been. The girls had met the three of them briefly the previous night as they had suddenly burst into the bar at the brink of the night, throwing loud and overexcited greetings all around. Suzy watched the kids and her two friends for a little while longer, wondering what they were talking about. Something fun apparently, seeing as they were all grinning.

Suzy noticed Nelle sitting a bit further from them, sprawled over some cushions with Yuffie and apparently bickering over something with her. It was an apparently heated yet still playful argument. Suzy grinned. It seemed that Nelle was getting along rather well with Yuffie, even if they were quite different, Yuffie being a cheerful, outgoing and optimistic person while Nelle was more of a snide little pessimist who rarely socialized with anyone voluntarily. Still, Suzy thought, they had their similarities too, both being sort of tomboyish and mischievous. Perhaps those were the things bringing them together, Suzy mused. In any case, she was glad they were getting along.

After looking for Caroline for a moment, Suzy spotted the tall girl by the window, talking with a kid with short, brownish hair. The girl seemed about ten years old, but there was something a little off about her… Suzy wondered who she was. She hadn't seen her before. She frowned at the look on Caroline's face – she was smiling politely as always, but there was an almost painfully sympathetic glint in her eyes. Or perhaps it was pity. Whatever it was, it made Suzy uncomfortable, so she looked away.

Aside from the strange little girl, there were four more people in the room that Suzy didn't recognize – three men and one woman. The woman and two of the men were dressed in dark blue suits, the shorter of the men wearing his in a much more carefree and wrinkled manner than the other two who looked very neat. He had long red hair tied back in a ponytail, narrow green eyes, and a tirelessly mischievous grin on his face. The other man was bald and tanned, taller and of much stronger build than the redhead. He was wearing sunglasses that hid his eyes completely and made him look like some kind of an agent. The woman, on the other hand, looked very lithe. She had quite short blond hair, very neat, and round amber eyes that held a serious yet somewhat nervous look in them. Suzy wondered why.

The last of the people yet unfamiliar to her was a man in an expensive looking white suit. He had blond hair, neatly combed back, and rather light blue eyes, somewhat cold Suzy thought. He was having a subdued looking conversation with Cloud, a small smirk uninterrupted on his face as they spoke. The blue suited people were just hanging around behind him, the redhead sporting a rather bored expression.

Tifa was the first to notice that Suzy had entered the room.

"Oh, you finally woke up!" she called cheerfully – much too cheerfully for Suzy's liking. She gave the bartender a chilling (and somewhat unwarranted) glare. Tifa's smile wavered slightly. "Not a morning person, huh? I'll go get you some breakfast", she said before brushing past Suzy and leaving the room to go to the kitchen. Suzy sighed. Well, now she seemed to have everyone's attention.

"Morning", she greeted the people in the room, most of whom were now looking at her. Cloud walked over.

"Good morning. Glad to see you're awake. We'll start with the training once you've eaten something", he told her while ushering her further into the room. "But first I should introduce you to some people." He guided her towards the man dressed in white. "This is Rufus Shinra, the president of the Shinra Electric Company", Cloud introduced him. Of course, Suzy should have known. The man looked too expensive to be anyone else.

Rufus shook Suzy's hand politely. "A pleasure to meet you", he said in an almost official and somewhat haughty manner. Suzy smiled at him tightly but didn't have time to reply as Cloud was already gesturing at the blue suited trio beside Rufus.

"These are Turks, people who work for Rufus", Cloud told her. "Rude, Elena and Reno", he named the people for Suzy. She nodded slightly as the three greeted her. Cloud then motioned for her to turn to the girl Caroline had been talking to.

"And this is Shelke", he introduced the little girl. Suzy took the opportunity to take a closer look at the girl. "She might look ten years old to you but she's actually closer to nineteen. It's the same thing as with Vincent – even though he looks under thirty, he's actually over sixty years old."

Suzy felt her jaw drop. Vincent was _sixty_?! And this little kid here wasn't actually ten despite looking exactly as if she was…? How was that even possible?!

Cloud gave her a brief explanation about fucked up experiments involving some fucked up substance called mako. It definitely freaked Suzy out quite a bit, but gladly both Vincent and Shelke seemed pretty much fine despite this peculiar inability to age… Suzy, however, didn't even want to think about what it would be like to spend your entire life in the body of a ten year old.

Once she had been introduced to everyone, Suzy finally got to have the breakfast Tifa had brought her, which consisted of a rather large sandwich and a nice cup of coffee. Once she was done, Cloud took her and her four friends to some sort of a closet at the back of the kitchen. At the back of the closet, there was a hidden doorway and behind the door a staircase leading down into a really spacious basement apparently dedicated completely for training and workout.

It was almost surreally convenient, Suzy thought, knowing her friends were probably thinking along the same lines as they eyed the full blown shooting range, the extensive gym equipment, the punching bags hanging from the ceiling and the large padded area of the floor below them that was probably meant for wrestling or practicing martial arts or something else violent. At the back of the basement, there was a small storage room of sorts with big windows looking back into the combined shooting range and gym.

This place was probably bigger than the entire bar itself! An indoor shooting range wasn't really the most compact thing to try to fit into one's basement, Suzy mused.

Vincent and Rufus followed them soon and quickly guided the girls to the shooting range. They started off wisely by demonstrating how to take apart and load the guns, showing the girls how to do it and guiding them as they tried it on their own. After practicing the mechanics for a while, Vincent decided it was time to start shooting. The girls nervously loaded their guns with the bullets provided and took their places, each at their own firing point, eyeing the targets on the other side of the room that they were supposed to somehow manage to hit.

"Alright, let's practice some shots together first. I suppose then it'll be okay for you to start practicing your aim individually, but first we should see some of the basic things out together", Rufus told them firmly. "It would also be good for us to be able to determine your approximated starting levels. Vincent and I will observe and adjust your approach to your gun, tell you what to focus on improving and so on. You will then try to fix whatever flaws in your technique we point out to you. Is this clear?"

The girls nodded. They then began to take their first individual shots, starting from the left. This made Liz the first shooter. Vincent and Rufus gave her some further guidance with her gun, telling her to aim for the head of the black human form that was her target. After a while, the girl was finally ready to shoot the gun, and so she did, missing the target but not by as much as one might have guessed. Rufus and Vincent gave her some detailed feedback before moving on to prepare Josephine for her first try. The blonde shot at her target eagerly but missed the black figure because, according to Rufus, she was holding the gun wrong.

For Caroline, the biggest problem turned out to be her nerves. She didn't seem to be able to relax as she held the gun, fidgeting almost compulsively as she tried to aim. She rushed to pull the trigger and her bullet completely missed the target.

"You need to calm down when you shoot", Rufus reprimanded her. "If you can't control your nerves, you're better off not using a gun at all. Shooting in such a rushed and nervous manner could endanger much more than just your target."

"Yeah, I know", Caroline snapped. "I'll work on it."

Vincent stuck around to give her some further advice while Rufus moved on to prep Nelle for her first try. Once Vincent was done with Caroline, he joined them and Rufus told Nelle to go ahead with her shot. It turned out air guns really were useful practice after all as Nelle managed to hit the target in the neck. After offering minimal praise for her success, Rufus and Vincent gave her some advice on how to improve her aim and correct her grip before finally making their way to Suzy who was anxiously waiting for her turn.

After some initial corrections and advice on how to hold her arms and grip the trigger, Rufus urged her to take a shot. Suzy did as told and pulled the trigger, as swift and steady as she could. Her bullet hit the target in the right side of its chest, making the girl grin widely with triumph.

"Good job", Rufus told her. "You still have to work on your aim and be less hasty with the trigger, but I think you've got the basics under control. In fact, all of you did better than I expected."

The girls took turns under the close supervision of Rufus and Vincent for a couple of more rounds before Rufus decided that they had become familiar enough with the guns to handle them without constant surveillance and cold now start shooting on their own to work on their aim.

They spent about an hour at the shooting range before Rufus decided it was enough for the day and promptly announced that he was leaving. No one objected, the girls having grown quite tired of the practice already. Cloud decided they should carry on with self-defense practice and followed Rufus and Vincent upstairs to fetch Tifa and Yuffie to teach the girls. He returned not only with the bartender and the ninja in tow, but Reno and Elena as well.

"They're going to be your practice opponents!" Yuffie announced happily. "Or well, we are too, but you know – there'd be just three of us", she motioned to herself, Tifa and Cloud, "and we need five."

Tifa then began to demonstrate how one should react if attacked from behind, deciding to teach them how to throw the attacker over your shoulder. After she was done with the demonstration, she paused to look at the nine people before her thoughtfully.

"Now then, how should we pair up to practice?" she pondered, eyeing them all thoughtfully.

"Who cares, let's just draw who's with who", Reno shrugged.

Deciding that it would save them time, they did as he suggested. The result was that Tifa would practice with Josephine (which everyone thought was a rather good match), Liz with Reno (which worried the girl slightly – Reno seemed a bit too excited), Cloud with Caroline (which seemed a bit awkward for some reason, perhaps because she was actually a bit taller than him), Nelle with Yuffie (which some of them doubted was a good thing) and Suzy with Elena (which at least in Suzy's opinion was good, seeing as the Turk looked to be almost frail – Suzy figured that with her, she might have a chance of success!).

They got into the assigned pairs and started practicing. The five earthlings pretended to be oblivious victims while their training partners acted as vicious attackers who crept up to them behind their backs, attempting to strangle or otherwise hurt or seize them. The girls were then supposed to get a good but sudden grip on their attacker's arm and use that to somehow pull and throw them over their back to get them before them and take them by surprise, then beat them until they were no longer a threat.

That was the plan, but it seemed Tifa's expectations for the girls were a bit too high. Here's how things really went:

Caroline got nowhere with Cloud. Even if he was shorter than her, he was still a pretty heavy dude, so throwing him over one's shoulder was not really an easy task. All she managed to do was make him stumble slightly to the side, but mostly her struggling had no effect on him. It was rather discouraging.

Nelle didn't fare much better with Yuffie. Sure, she could lift the other girl off the ground, but then the whole thing would just, rather literally, collapse. Time and time again, the two of them ended up sprawled on the padded floor, most of the time either cursing or laughing. It didn't help at all that Yuffie kept squirming the entire time.

Josephine was doing a little better than them with her attempts to use Tifa's own move on the fighter herself. She came quite close to achieving what she was supposed to be doing a couple of times, but instead of managing to throw Tifa over her back, she kept losing balance and making them both fall down on their side. Still, Josephine usually fell on top of Tifa, so perhaps it could have given a victim at least some advantage in a real attack situation.

Suzy had to quickly realize that her impression of Elena was pretty much wrong. The female Turk was nowhere as frail as she seemed, and getting the upper hand in the attack situation they were playing out turned out to be an immensely difficult task. Suzy was rather pissed off about this, to say the least.

Still, no matter how annoyed the rest of them might have been over their lack of success with the move they were supposed to be practicing, Liz was by far in the most frustrating situation. She was being just as unsuccessful as the rest of them with Reno, and it turned out this was rather boring the Turk. Therefore, as the failures kept piling up, he decided that it was time to forget the training and liven up the situation a little. In other words, Reno decided it was high time he harassed the girl he was attacking a bit.

"Just admit it babe", he smirked into Liz's ear, wrapping his arm around her in a way that was not quite the attacker's he was supposed to be playing, "I'm too much for you."

Liz had already been at the brink of exploding with frustration with the fruitless practice, and Reno's loss of concentration and decision to be a greasy bitch turned out to be, unsurprisingly, the last straw. With a growl of rage and a flushed face, the girl decided to forget the stupid move she had been instructed to work on and instead let her instincts take over, elbowing the man behind her in the stomach as hard as she could. The Turk doubled over in pain and surprise, quickly letting go of the girl. Liz took the opportunity to spin around and kick him for being an ass. She aimed for the groin and her aim was perfect. Reno fell on the floor in a wailing heap.

"Way to go, Liz!" Suzy cheered, pulling away from her struggle with Elena.

"Yeah, that works, doesn't it", Nelle grinned at the miserable sight of Reno on the floor. "What's the point in trying to learn this type of complicated moves when we could just do what she just did?"

"My thoughts exactly", Caroline groaned, relieved by the disturbance that allowed her to get Cloud off her back. "This throwing thing is way too difficult!"

Right then a loud thud and a small yelp echoed through the room. Everyone turned to look at Josephine and Tifa, the latter of whom was now lying at the former's feet. The blonde had finally managed to perform the blasted move successfully. Tifa sat up on the floor, looking bewildered but somewhat pleased. Josephine, on the other hand, was beaming with satisfaction over her success.

Her friends were quick to explode into cheers.

"Damn right, Josie! You were born to kick ass!" Suzy laughed.

"Yeah, no one can oppose our Josephine", Liz chuckled.

Still, despite Josephine's success, the lot of them decided that the move was much too complicated to start with after all. Instead, they began to practice some simpler defense moves, such as different kicks, which they all agreed was a much cleverer thing to focus on at that early point of their training.

After over two hours of continuous training, the girls were too tired to continue, so everyone agreed that they would finish up for the day. Together, they climbed upstairs and ate some dinner. After the food was gone, Cloud asked the five earthlings to follow him into the lounge.

This time, as Suzy entered said room with her friends, there was no one inside. The streets behind the windows were getting dark, and the light in the room was quite dim as well. Cloud closed the door softly behind the girls and walked over to the window, looking outside sharply. He then turned to face the girls who had stopped near the door, feeling slightly confused with the way he was acting.

"Uh… sit down", he told the girls before turning to glance out of the window once more. Suzy, Liz and Caroline sat down on the couch beside them, Nelle and Josephine taking the two armchairs nearby. Cloud studied the road outside the bar right and left. His behavior was making the girls nervous.

"Is something wrong?" Caroline asked. Cloud turned back to them, now with a frown on his face. He walked over to sit closer to them, giving them a long and serious look.

"Nanaki called me before dinner", he told them. "He's the one whose grandfather, Bugenhagen, made the portal machine, in case you'd forgotten. I'd asked him before for any ideas why the machine might have brought you here when we were trying to summon our friends to our aid." Cloud paused for a moment, watching the girls with a tight frown. "He said that might just be it."

He paused, taking in the confused looks the girls were giving him. "What I'm saying is", he went on, "you might not be here by an accident after all. Perhaps there was no error with the machine. What Nanaki suggested, and what I also now suspect, is that you might actually be here to be the friends we summoned for help."

The girls' reactions varied greatly. Josephine's jaw dropped dramatically, her eyes narrowing into slits and brows climbing closer to her hairline. Nelle's expression turned incredibly skeptical, her brows furrowing in a questioning manner, eyes in a near glare below them. Caroline's eyes, on the other hand, went wide and her lips came apart in a soundless gasp of bewilderment. Liz was simply staring, eyebrows raised very high and lips pulled in a straight line, and Suzy was blinking rapidly in confusion, alternating between a frown and a wide eyed stare, mouth opening and closing but no words coming out.

It was completely silent until Josephine managed to gather herself enough to speak.

"So, you're saying that we're here to help you out?" she said slowly. Cloud nodded.

"Yes. That's definitely a valid possibility, and personally I believe that's what this is all about", he told them earnestly. "I doubt the portal would have opened up into a completely different world without a good reason, even if it was unstable. Nanaki said he had found entries in Bugenhagen's journals depicting successful test runs with the machine, so a malfunction of this scale seems unlikely. I think, this is the most probable explanation at the moment."

"But… what are we supposed to do then?" Liz asked incredulously.

"I don't know yet", Cloud shook his head. "Maybe you need to help us defeat Sephiroth", he suggested hesitantly.

"Yeah, sure, how would that work out?" Caroline asked fiercely, taken over by frustration. "You saw it yourself down there just now – we can't even fight, at all! And he's only like the most dangerous person in existence, as you so kindly explained yesterday!"

"I'm not sure how or why or what exactly you need to do", Cloud shook his head quickly. "But the only explanation we can think of for this mess right now is that you're here to help us with something. If only Bugenhagen was alive, maybe he could tell us more about how the portals work and possibly enlighten us on why you're all here, but sadly that isn't the case. So the only thing we can do is trust his grandson and believe him when he says that it's likely that you indeed are here to aid us."

"Alright, fine, let's say that's the case. I get all of that", Nelle nodded, still frowning, "but what I don't get is why you're acting so damn nervous, or should I say downright paranoid."

"Well", Cloud cleared his throat uncomfortably, "as it now seems that you are here to help us, it would suggest that you're in some way an important factor in our fight against Sephiroth. And if he finds out about that, you're going to be in serious danger. He's going to want to get rid of you", he explained. "That's why now, even more than before, it's crucial that you learn to defend yourselves. We should also, even if our attempts turn out to be futile, try to keep all information concerning you and your purpose here as secret as possible. Sephiroth doesn't necessarily have to know anything about you. So considering all this, I think it'd be best for you to spend most of your time here at the bar. And if you do have to go out, don't go without me or Tifa or Yuffie or someone else to cover your back. Okay?"

Suzy gave him a very displeased look. "Do you even realize how much this sounds like you're about to start treating us like babies?" she asked him dryly. "We're grown-ups Cloud, even if we're younger than you, and frankly this babysitting plan of yours is making me uncomfortable."

"It's not about babysitting you", Cloud frowned at her. "It's about keeping you alive. You don't know what Sephiroth's capable of. And it's not only him. His clones too, mindless as they can be, are very dangerous. We need to keep you safe from them at all costs. Until we find out what you're here to do, we shouldn't take any risks. We must be extra careful, all of us", he nearly demanded.

The girls stared at him for a moment, mostly confused but also worried. Then, nearly in unison, they nodded.

"Alright", Suzy muttered. "The plan still sounds really lame, but if that's what it takes not to get killed…"

Cloud nodded. "I'm glad you understand. I'll make sure there's someone here at all times to look after you", he told them, standing up. "But now it's getting late. You've had a rough day. You'd better get some sleep."

"Right, right", Liz nodded, standing up as well. Caroline and Suzy followed her example, Josephine and Nelle doing the same soon after.

"Well, off to bed we are then", Nelle muttered.

"Good night", Caroline called out quietly to Cloud as the five of them left the room. They walked upstairs wordlessly, wishing one another good night as they reached their doors and departed into their separate rooms. The reality of the situation was slowly beginning to clear, but things still weren't getting any easier to believe. It was like they had been pulled into the middle of some twisted dream world – a dystopian fantasy.


End file.
